Quotes from Frank Herbert

Madness in method, that's genius

The Proximity of a Desirable Thing Tempts One to Overindulgence. On That Path Lies Danger.

The day the flesh shapes and the flesh the day shapes.

What delicious abandon in the sleep of the child. Where do we lose it?

Each man is a little war.

Why is it that foolishness repeats itself with such monotonous precision?

It's very difficult convincing the young of anything. They're born knowing so much.

If you put away those who report accurately, you'll keep only those who know what you want to hear. I can think of nothing more poisonous than to rot in the stink of your own reflections.

She looked at patches of blackness. Black is a blind remembering, she thought.

A creature who has spent his life creating one particular representation of his selfdom will die rather than become the antithesis of that representation

Beginnings are such delicate times.

I'm going to rub your faces in things you try to avoid. I don't find it strange that all you want to believe is only that which comforts you. How else do humans invent the traps which betray us into mediocrity? How else do we define cowardice?

There are illusions of popular history which a successful religion must promote: Evil men never prosper; only the brave deserve the fair; honesty is the best policy; actions speak louder than words; virtue always triumphs; a good deed is its own reward; any bad human can be reformed; religious talismans protect one from demon possession; only females understand the ancient mysteries; the rich are doomed to unhappiness.

The universe does not work by our rules

And loyalty is a valued commodity. It can be sold . . . not bought, but sold.

You are a child seeking to be a man. When you are a man, you will seek in vain for the child you were.

To exist is to stand out, away from the background, The Preacher said. You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.

Hard tasks need hard ways.

TO THE LADY JESSICA- May this place give you as much pleasure as it has given me. Please permit the room to convey a lesson we learned from the same teachers: the proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence. On that path lies danger. My kindest wishes, MARGOT LADY FENRING

Full moon calls thee-- Shai-hulud shall thou see; Red the night, dusky sky, Bloody death didst thou die. We pray to a moon: she is round-- Luck with us will then abound, What we seek for shall be found In the land of solid ground.

What the eyes had seen could not be erased.

Scientists seek the lawfulness of events. It is the task of Religion to fit man into this lawfulness.

Ready comprehension is often a knee-jerk response and the most dangerous form of understanding. It blinks an opaque screen over your ability to learn. Be warned. Understand nothing. All comprehension is temporary.

Each of us comes into being knowing who he is and what he is supposed to do.' ... 'Small children know,' Leto said. 'It's only after adults have confused them that children hide this knowledge even from themselves.